Leviton DW15P-1BW Decora Smart Wi-Fi Mini Plug-In Outlet, No Hub Required, Works with Alexa, Google Assistant and Nest

Update three months later, June 1 2020: All the outlets continue to work flawlessly. Highly recommended!__________This review is for the DW15P-1BW Decora Smart Wi-Fi Mini Plug-In Outlet.I first tested two of these plug-in outlets for about a week, and was impressed enough to order ten more, which I've been testing now for several weeks. Until now I've been using similar outlets from Wemo, and so far I like these better overall.WHAT I LIKE:- Solid Wifi Connection: The wifi connections have been rock-solid, with no disconnections that I've noticed. I've tried the outlets in the far corners of my house, including iffy areas such as the garage, back porch, and furnace room (with lots of sheet metal around), with no connection problems. (For reference, the house is one and a half stories, 1400 sq ft plus semi-finished basement.)- Quick Wifi Connection: The wifi reconnects quickly after unplugging the outlet and plugging it back in -- about 15 seconds, compared with about 60 seconds for the Wemo mini-outlet and 90 seconds for the Wemo Insight outlet.- On-Off Memory: The outlet remembers its on or off state after a power loss. If it was switched on before losing power, it's switched on after power is restored. For me this is a big advantage over the Wemo outlets, which are always switched off after power is restored.- Web App As Well As Phone App: Leviton is the only manufacturer I've found that offers a web app in addition to the iOS and Android phone/tablet apps. This is another big advantage for me, though it may be unimportant to many.- Multiple Physical Locations: You can control Leviton devices in more than one house using the same account. Wemo devices don't allow this.- Configurable Indicator Light: Each outlet has a fairly bright green LED light, which is also the physical button you press to turn the outlet on or off manually. The thoughtful thing Leviton has done is to let you decide whether you want the light at all, and if so, what it means. So you have three options: (1) You can turn the light off altogether. (2) You can use the light as a power indicator -- on when the outlet is on, off when the outlet is off. (3) You can use the light as a locator -- on when the outlet is OFF, so in a dark room you can find the button to press to turn the outlet ON. When you first set up the outlet, it's in the locator mode.- Alexa Integration: I'm not sure how much I'll use this feature, but it works very well and could turn out to very useful in the right place. Workshop? Kitchen? Who knows.TWO THINGS WEMO OFFERS THAT LEVITON LACKS:- Custom Photos: The Wemo app lets you take your own photo for each device, which is then displayed in the app next to that device. I'm hoping Leviton will add this very useful feature to their app.- Power Usage Tracking: Wemo offers a more-expensive device called the Wemo Insight that lets you track power usage. It would be nice if Leviton also offered such a device.MISCELLANEOUS:- Sound: The outlet makes a clearly audible click when turning on or off. So does the Wemo. You wouldn't want to have either of these outlets switching on and off in a sleeping area during the night.- Setup: A few times as I was adding a new device, the setup stalled at the step, "Please wait while we transfer your Wi-Fi settings to your Leviton device." Leviton's support site says if this happens, you should:1. Return to the mobile device home screen and enter Settings. Select Wi-Fi settings.2. Select your Wi-Fi network from the list of available Wi-Fi networks.3. When your mobile device is connected to your Wi-Fi network, return to the My Leviton app.But that didn't help; I was already connected to the correct wifi network. I tried quitting and restarting the app, resetting the outlet, and re-adding the device. This eventually worked. My theory is that this happened when the device's firmware was out of date. Some of the outlets had current firmware, others not. Some upgraded smoothly to the current firmware, others had this glitch. That's my theory.Overall, this plug-in outlet is an excellent product from an electrical-component company that's been around for more than a century and seems to know what it's doing.

I was an early adopter of Leviton Decora WiFi switch solution, and it's been about four years since I originally installed this product to realize the promise of a 'smart home'. By extension, I think my experience offers a unique, valuable perspective:• While the 'Gen 1' products had an extremely high failure rate that was very frustrating at times, Leviton has consistently stood by its warranty commitment to replace failed units.• Over the years, I've noted continued investments to improve product stability, security, and app experience.• I’m really liking the installation / setup improvements that were incorporated in the 'Gen 2' products, which replace the now discontinued 'Gen 1' products under warranty repairs.• If lessons were learned and the quality / reliability of the 'Gen 2' products have similarly improved, this presumes to be a really solid solution.I will update this review as my experience with 'Gen 2' products unfold.---Original experience:To realize the promise of a 'smart home', I invested heavily in Leviton Decora Wi-Fi switches, buying [16] of the regular variety (DW15S-1BZ), [8] of the dimmer variety (DW1KD-1BZ), [4] of three-way switch remotes (DD0SR-DLZ), and some of the plug-in (DW15A-1BW) units between July and December of 2017.To be fair, I'll say that contrary to other reports the Wi-Fi has been very reliable, and switch responsiveness to Wi-Fi commands has always been timely, but like others I had trouble after power outages, a need to reset breakers to restore connectivity, etc.Also, twice I had the system go 'haywire' with lights turning on and off on their own, which was quite scary. I first thought it was hackers, but Leviton assured me it was an issue with their cloud platform - still, very unnerving.The mobile application user interface can be difficult to navigate, but I got used to it and can live with that.The real issue has been the extremely high failure rate - upwards of 50%, maybe 75% of those I purchased have failed since they were installed, even while my house is newer (built 2007) with high quality wiring, required neutral wire, and fairly stable, reliable power.Leviton has thus far honored their warranty, but not always as quickly as I'd like, and this is still a hassle.Consider, you have the cost of the device itself and the further time and effort for installation (or electrician cost if you're not installing yourself) which is multiplied by the high failure rate to account for replacements, along with being unable to turn lights on and off during a failure (sometimes even manually) until the unit is replaced.In my calculus, over the life so far those have greatly outweighed any gains from the convenience of the smart features.It may be that engineering has improved on newer models to be reliable, but if not, once these are out of warranty, I couldn't imagine having switch replacements becoming some new lifetime budgetary cost and household repair task.All that to say, in my opinion the concept is great, but execution - tied to the expectation of always being able to reliably turn your lights on and off - needs work.

Just to be clear that this unit is rated for 16amps and is 5G and 2.4G compatible as well as working with Alexa. Easy set up on Alexa. You will need to download their app. Price is steep but it's the only one I could find with all the capabilities I needed. Works great no problems.

This plug-in switch is the only one I have found that will work with Nest. Unfortunately Leviton discontinued this product and offers one described as 2nd Gen that DOES NOT work with Nest. I have purchased two of the DW15P and they have been working perfectly for many months. Deciding to add a 3rd one, I ordered another DW15P but received the D215P which is the 2nd Gen version. It has been returned with no problem but be sure to verify with the Amazon seller that you will get the older version.

This smart plug works great. I had all kinds of problems with the previous smart plug (Treatlife), sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. I have this connected to a hot plate to control an old style percolator coffee pot using alexa to start it and stop it so I need reliability. This new Leviton DW15P worked great right out of the box, was easy to setup and has been 100% reliable. Some of my problems might have been my 2.4ghz is overloaded with to many alexa and other devices, this Leviton runs on either network so having it on my 5ghz network that has far less connected to it might also be solving my problem. If you are looking for a reliable smart plug that runs on 5ghz, this is the one to get.

Didn't expect much as this was a fairly cheap solution for an awkward plug controlling a lamp. But at best it was connected 50% of the time requiring constant trouble shooting to reconnect it to the internet and then back into google home services. Just a pain and not worth the hassle honestly would have been faster every time for me to just go to the lamp and turn it on.

At the time of writing, this is the only smart socket that has 5Ghz support. If you don't want to split your network to use cheaper sockets that run you $10, you're going to have to get this. But rest assured, I've been using this to program my bedroom lights on and off for the past 2 months and it has been working well. Saves me from the headache of setting up 2Ghz sockets.

Works flawlessly via the My Leviton app. I have two working together with one click as living room but each can be switched independently all on your phone within the app. Very easy to connect to phone and have worked reliably. A great option to all the smart plugs that only work on 2.4gh wifi if you are on 5gh wifi, these work great.

It's the only Smart Socket that works on the 5GHZ network , i switched to a Bell Hub3000 modem and all my previous 2,4 GHZ smart sockets don't support 5GHZ ...Anyhow , the instructions are straightforward and i'm going to order a second one as this one is works for me and it comes with a 5 year warranty !Only drawback , this item is still pricey but it's the only one available for now ...

A bit pricey, but runs on a 5 GHz network. Most are for a 2.4. Check before you buy. Relatively easy to install and once set up, works great with my Google Home mini.